Thursday, January 24, 2013

Their Eyes Were Watching God Pantoum

One of my resolutions for this year is to do one thing every day that makes me happy. Creating makes me happy. I've spent a lot of time lately reading the creations of others, including the much-acclaimed novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Much of her language is poetry in prose form. It's beautiful.This semester I'm also TAing for one of the Creative Writing Professors. One of the activities I prepared for the class was the form for a pantoum (information available here on what that is). As part of my reading of Their Eyes Were Watching God I've been asked to keep a reading journal. I had a spark of an idea today when I was finishing the novel; taking some of Hurston's words and formulating them into a pantoum.I pulled the phrases I noted in my journal, then used a number randomizer to assign them line numbers (as the lines repeat in a specific order). I'm sure this may seem like a cop-out for creativity, but the honest truth is, I loved each of the lines so much, and the pattern is so intricate, that this is the best way I could come up with to bring it all together. And, honestly, I don't think I could have thought up a better organization if I had worried it out for weeks and months.I don't have a title yet. Therefore, the working title is an homage to the text from which it is drawn.Their Eyes Were Watching GodThe mother of malice had trifled with men
the palm and banana trees had began that long distance talk with rain,
"Have
the nerve to say what you mean."
It
was just so.
The
palm and banana trees began that long distance talk with rain--
it
was hard to love a woman that made you feel so wishful
It
was just so.
"There
ain’t no tellin what I’m liable to do yet."
It
was hard to love a woman that made you feel so wishful
several
men sat around stuffing courage into each other’s ears,
"There
ain’t no tellin what I’m liable to do yet."God
would do less than He had in His heart
several
men sat around stuffing courage into each other’s ears--
after
a while the people finished their celebration
God
would do less than He had in His heart;
she was too busy feeling grief to dress like grief
after
a while the people finished their celebration
"Have
the nerve to say what you mean."
She was too busy feeling grief to dress like grief--
the
mother of malice had trifled with men
And might I suggest; do something today simply because it makes you happy.